You Caravaggio's The Calling Of St. Matthew

Art, a visual expression of events, thoughts, emotions, and agendas, completely made up of lines, colors, perceivable and unperceivable ideals, topography of paint and structure, and the overall response to the work as it is interpreted. Art can be anything from the purposeful organization of items in nature as in earthworks, to the random spatter patterns of abstract. To critique art, one must be able to identify the components that make up the work of which is being critiqued. Composition is the key element; it provides the artist with the logic within which to organize a work (LaCaruba, Starter Kit). Then one must identify the principles of the composition; line, directional forces, shape, color and value. Think of it as art DNA, you

Matthew” is an oil on canvas scenery piece from the Baroque period in Italy. The painting was commissioned for the Contarelli chapel in the French church of San Luigi dei Fancesi in Rome (Artble). Caravaggio, however, was not the initial artist to be commissioned for the work to be completed at dei Francesi, instead his employer; Cavaliere d’Arpino was the original winner of the commission. Due to overscheduling on d’Arpino’s behalf, Caravaggio was later awarded the commission and completed his most prized work. During the time this painting was commissioned, mannerism was dying, the Italian Aristocracy along with funding from the church during the Counter-Reformation allowed for artists to expand on the style of the Italian Renaissance and the left-overs of mannerism to create a bolder, more realistic style, the Baroque. Caravaggio’s “The Calling of St. Matthew”, in 1600, was the first true representation of the style and later established Caravaggio as the pioneer of Baroque art. In, “The Calling of St. Matthew”, Caravaggio illustrates the very moment Jesus calls on Matthew to be one of his twelve disciples. Taken from a Bible story in the New Testament, Matthew 9:9, the scene depicts the scripture that reads, “"And when Jesus passed on from thence, he saw a man sitting in the custom house, named Matthew; and he said to him: Follow me. And he arose up and followed

Renoir, in conjunction with his classmates Claude Monet, Sisley, and Bazille established the Impressionist movement. Taking art in an exceedingly new direction, these young artists experimented with new techniques and were thought of as radicals of their time and as a result they burst the foundations of ancient types of painting, and worked outside of the studio. Although Impressionism in France began once many alternative painters were experimenting with plein-air painting, Pierre Auguste Renoir and his peers developed new techniques that outlined the movement; their art was immediate, and it represented movement with sincere compositions and vivid colors. Rejected by the Salon, they displayed their works privately exhibitions and gained support for their distinct, trendy paintings. Their works were simply recognizable by their use of bright colors, visible brush strokes, and stress on light weight. Their style portrayed subjects and landscapes naturally. The emergence of Impressionism galvanized several alternative artists of the time and throughout the nineteenth century and led the means for a range of alternative movements, together with Neo-impressionism, Post-impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism